Thy'lek Shran
Thy'lek Shran, born Hravishran th'Zoarhi, was a 22nd century Andorian thaan who served as a prominent officer in the Andorian Imperial Guard before becoming one of the first leading admirals of the newly-constituted Federation Starfleet in the 2160s. Upon reaching the correct age he followed several other members of his family, including his elder brother, in joining the Imperial Guard. In order to follow a career in the military, Shran had to sacrifice his responsibility of being in a shelthreth party, which meant he had to live a very lonely life for many years. In 2142, Shran was promoted to commander of the Andorian warship, Kumari. At some point during Shran's command, Talas, a female tactical officer came aboard the Kumari. Like Shran, she had sacrificed her place in a shelthreth party, and the two eventually became lovers. History Early Life Shran came from a military family and remembered his older brother joining the Imperial Guard, while he was still in primary school. The "Pinkskin" Opening Engagements In June 2151, Shran led a commando team that raided a Vulcan monastery on P'Jem, in the hopes of finding and destroying a long-range sensor array hidden away under the monastery, which was being used to illegally survey Andorian territory. After leading two assaults on the monastery, the team was unable to discover the base. However, on the third visit the monastery was being visited by Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the ''Enterprise'' (NX-01). The presence of the Enterprise and Subcommander T'Pol, led Shran to believe that the Vulcans were definitely hiding something beneath the monastery, and he had Archer, T'Pol, Malcolm Reed, and Charles Tucker III taken prisoner. The prisoners were later able to escape after using the transporter to bring down security officers from Enterprise. In the ensuing firefight, Shran and Archer accidentally uncovered an entrance to the secret sensor array located underneath the monastery. As a gesture of peace to Shran, Archer shared all sensor data and images taken by the array, and allowed Shran to depart the planet freely. Shran later admitted that he was in Archer's debt. Several months later, Shran paid his debt to Archer after rescuing him and T'Pol from rebels on Coridan III. During this encounter, Shran helped to avoid a firefight between the Coridanite rebels and the crew of the Vulcan starship, Ni'Var, by shooting the rebel leader, Traeg, who was about to kill Captain Sopek. Mutual Trust In late 2152, Shran commanded Andorian ground forces that were attached to Weytahn, a planet disputed between the Andorians and Vulcans. Shran wanted to negotiate a cease fire with Ambassador Soval, but wanted Archer to mediate as he had proven himself impartial during their previous encounters. Soon after, while giving Archer a tour of an Andorian city, Shran introduced the human to the mysterious establishment known as The Captain's Table. In December 2153, the Kumari was ordered into the Delphic Expanse to capture a prototype of the Xindi superweapon that the Andorians could use to thwart a Vulcan invasion. After catching up with Enterprise, Shran provided tactical and engineering support and repaired heavy damage that had been suffered during their months in the Expanse. Following this, Shran and Archer launched a combined assault on a Xindi weapons-testing area, and the Kumari was able to capture the prototype weapon. When Shran tried to steal the weapon, Archer destroyed the weapon using its remote activation code. Regardless of his betrayal, Shran transmitted sensor data which would later prove invaluable in stopping the Xindi. In February 2154, Shran and the Kumari came to Earth's defense by attempting to destroy the Xindi superweapon before it reached Earth. Later that year, the Vulcan High Command planned an invasion of Andoria. The Earth starship Enterprise, with Soval's help, located Shran and alerted him of the invasion. Shran was in command of a fleet of only seven ships while the Vulcans had twelve, though Andorian reinforcements were on the way. When the Vulcan fleet arrived, the first fights occurred just between the Vulcans and Andorians. When Enterprise, who was attempting to play the part of peacekeeper, was ordered to be destroyed, Shran stopped the Vulcans from doing so, stating that Archer now owed him twice. When problems in the Vulcan High Command ended, the battle halted. The trust between Humans and Andorians strengthened, and a new trust between Soval and Shran began. The Aenar In November 2154, the Kumari was destroyed by a Romulan drone-ship which was posing as a Tellarite vessel. Shran, Talas, and 18 additional crewmembers were able to make it to escape pods and were later rescued by Enterprise. Also aboard Enterprise was Gora bim Gral, the Tellarite ambassador. Determined to make Gral confess to the attack on the Kumari, Shran burst into Gral's quarters and held him at gunpoint. While the dispute was soothed by Archer, Talas was shot by Gral's aide, Naarg, and eventually died. In order to avenge the death of Talas, Shran challenged Naarg to the Ushaan, but Archer agreed to substitute for Naarg in the challenge. The duel ended when Archer lopped off Shran's left antenna and rendered him defenseless. Evidence eventually pointed to the fact that the Romulans were controlling their drone-ship's via telepresence being performed by the Aenar, an offshoot of the Andorian race. Shran and Archer traveled to Andoria to meet with the Aenar, and enlisted the help of Jhamel. With her help they were able to persuade the Romulan vessel's pilot, Gareb, to stop the attacks. Rescuing Jhamel After these events concluded, Shran returned to Andoria and was forced to resign from the Imperial Guard, and he later choose to spend his time living with Jhamel and the Aenar. Six months later, Shran attended the forming of the shelthreth bondgroup between Jhamel, Theras, Shenar, and Vishri. Following the completion of the ceremony, the area was raided by Orions, who began summarily capturing and transporting Aenar to their ship. Due to the Aenar's pacifistic nature, Shran was the only one who could put up a fight, but was soon overpowered and watched powerlessly as Jhamel, a woman he was coming to love, was taken. Following this event, Shran and Theras managed to contact Captain Archer and requested his help in tracking down Jhamel and the other Aenar. Archer was initially reluctant as he was under orders to make it to the signing of the Coalition Compact on Earth. Thankfully he decided to help Shran, and they were able to track the warp trail of the Orion vessel to Adigeon Prime. By now, Archer and Shran seriously believed that the Romulans had used the Orions and the Adigeons to capture the Aenar for them. After going through official channels to find the whereabouts of the Orion vessel and failing, Archer decided to take a landing party down to the surface and visit on Orion slave market. When they were able to capture an Orion guard in the hopes of interrogating him, Archer had to hold Shran back after he nearly killed the guard. However, Shran's methods were good for loosening the Orion's tongue, as he pleaded with Archer not to let Shran near him again. As the guard revealed that the Orion vessel had transferred the Aenar to a Romulan freighter that was heading into Romulan space, the guard's colleagues arrived to rescue him. Thankfully, a timely beam-up saved the party from becoming slaves. Not knowing the exact location of the freighter, Commander T'Pol came upon the idea of connecting Shran to the telepresence unit that was constructed by Commander Tucker during the last incident with the Aenar. Although not telepathic, Theras revealed that because of the deep bond between Shran and Jhamel he may be telepathically linked to her. The first attempt nearly damaged Shran's mind and damaged the unit, but the second time he was able to locate where Jhamel and the other Aenar were before he was forced to stop. Against orders, Archer took Enterprise into Romulan space in order to track down the freighter. Once they had intercepted, Shran and Theras joined a boarding party that were dispatched to find the Aenar. As Enterprise battled against two Romulan Bird-of-Preys, Theras used his telepathic powers to firstly shield the boarding party from the Romulans perception, and finally to make the Romulans turn their weapons on each other. With the guards disarmed, the boarding party, Jhamel, and the other Aenar were beamed back to Enterprise. Theras, however, remained aboard the Romulan freighter in order to destroy the vessel so that he couldn't be captured by the Romulans. Shortly before his death, it was his wish that Shran take his place within the shelthreth bondgroup with Jhamel. Earth-Romulan War During the initial stages of the Earth-Romulan War Shran remained in retirement. However, the loss of several former crewmates from the Kumari at the Battle of Threllvia IV led Shran to rejoin the Imperial Guard with Jhamel's blessing. Upon his return to the Guard, Shran was promoted to the rank of General and given command of the IGS Weytahn. Shran's new command held the responsibility of monitoring the Vulcan warp detection grid in the Andor system. During this duty, the Weytahn detected several of the grid's sensors going out. The Weytahn soon discovered that the Romulans were attacking. During the battle, Shran allowed the Earth warships Challenger and Yorktown to participate in the battle. Late in the battle, the Romulans captured Andorian support fighters and Shran was forced to destroy the vessels in order to survive. Following the battle, Shran got drunk on Fesoan grainwine because he was destraught at killing fellow Andorians. Federation In 2162, Shran was in charge of defense for the combined Starfleet, which was operated by the Andorian Guard. In the early Federation, each member state was in charge of a certain aspect of Starfleet, with the Andorian military spearheading defense. He was promoted to the rank of admiral and served as one of the joint-chiefs. Political Career Not unfamiliar with politics from his career in the military, involved in such negotiations as the Treaty for Disposition of Weytahn/Paan Mokar, Commander Shran would later have a seat on the Federation Council. Legacy Shran published his personal Memoirs via the Andorian High Command Press in the Andorian year 6180. A cerulean statue of Shran was located in Laibok in the 24th century and was visible from the offices of Charivretha zh'Thane. Category:Andorians Category:Andorian Imperial Guard personnel Category:Andorian commanders